Chehalis, Washington Shamrock Tour®
My mother loves Dick’s—the fast food chain, that is. She has had a lifelong love affair with the old-fashioned hamburger stand that opened in Seattle the same year she was born: 1954. Dick’s Drive-In is a staple of the Seattle metropolitan area, with nine current locations peppered throughout the Puget Sound. It’s one of those places you should visit if you’re in the area. And so, as Kyra and I started our ride around the Pacific Northwest (PNW), what better place to make a quick pit-stop for lunch, if only to make my mother envious.
This tour starts at Thousand Trails Chehalis, a 300-acre RV campground with private sites and cabins. The first of our four day rides would take us north through the small port city of Tacoma, past a Dick’s Drive-In, and onto one of the many maritime passenger ferries that crisscross the Puget Sound. When I was a kid, my mom would make any excuse to stop at the Dick’s closest to our house. Although I hated hamburgers, I’d settle for salty fries and strawberry shakes. Many times, those meals were the preamble to a ferry trip to see her best friend who lived on the Olympic Peninsula. And so, as we set off to board our own ferry, a stop at the Dick’s in Kent, WA, was just what the doctor ordered.
Ferries, Fries, and Douglas Firs
We had picked up a pair of Kawasakis from Paulson’s Motorsports in Lacey, WA, the oldest family-owned and -operated motorcycle dealer in the U.S. Kyra threw her leg over a new Ninja 500, while I packed our belongings into the saddlebags of a Versys 650 LT. This would turn out to be the perfect recipe for a multi-day PNW motorcycle adventure. The Versys served as our sport-touring mule, hauling enough stuff for two people to live comfortably off the bike every day.
With our panniers packed, we pointed ourselves toward LeMay, an automotive museum housed in a 165,000-square-foot steel-and-wood structure with views of Commencement Bay and downtown Tacoma. The museum can eat up an entire day, so be sure to budget for that when planning your own ride.
Motorcycles & Gear
2024 Kawasaki Versys 650 LT
2024 Kawasaki Ninja 500
Helmet: Shoei Neotec II
Jacket: Alpinestars Gravity Drystar Jacket
Pants: Alpinestars Barton Riding Cargo Pants
Gloves: Aerostich Elk Skin Roper Gloves
Boots: Danner Quarry 8in Boots
Luggage: OEM Panniers
Comm System: Sena 10C Pro
After our stop for fries and milkshakes, we made our way north toward Normandy Park, along the eastern edge of the Puget Sound. We did what we could to avoid I-5 on our way to West Seattle, following the shoreline to the Three Tree Point Store where we met my father for a quick coffee. Our next destination was the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal to board the Kittitas, a small car ferry that runs between West Seattle and Southworth, an unincorporated community in Kitsap County. After a brief wait and an interesting conversation with a fellow motorcyclist (turns out we played high school lacrosse against one another), we boarded the boat with full bellies and an eagerness to escape the claustrophobia of the city.
Once off the boat, we rode inland and connected with the 60-mile-long SR 3, which runs essentially the length of the Puget Sound north to south. We had wanted to escape the city, and were successful the moment we disembarked the Kittitas. Towering green trees line the roads of western Washington—Douglas firs and Sitka spruce, western hemlocks and the occasional maple. The juxtaposition between Seattle and its surroundings is quite evident when you travel just a little west of the city center. The remainder of our ride was every bit as beautiful as we’d anticipated.
We wandered south toward Shelton, where we connected with US 101 and looped back into Olympia. A stop to see the Washington State Capitol Building was followed by a short stint on I-5 to take us back to Thousand Trails. But this was just the start of what we had come to see in Washington—namely, a snow-covered volcano, some small seaside towns, and the beautiful backroads connecting them all.